Captain Terry Walsh MCBA President from Termar Charters Reports from Au Gres:
It has not been"business as usual" when fishing Saginaw Bay walleye this summer. For the first time in several years, traditional "hot spots" have not produced for extended periods of time. Fishing in the inner bay (AuGres south) has been spotty at best although fish are still being caught. Many anglers are finding it doesn't hurt to get an early start and are headed out to their favorite fishing grounds at first light.
One bright spot right now is the long expanse of water from the "Bell Can" north of AuGres all the way to Alabaster. North of the Big Charity Island has also been good but has experienced heavy boat traffic, especially on weekends. It doesn't take the fish long to shut down once a lot of boats move into the area. I've always found it's best to stay on the perimeters of the "packs" and often revisit my favorite areas once the boats have moved elsewhere.
While crawler harnesses … [Read more...]

Captain John Griszczak, MCBA Secretary, from Stray Cat Charters reports from Lake Erie.
Despite the hotter temperatures a fair amount of walleye are sticking around North of “E” buoy to the Raisin River and along the Michigan / Ohio boarder. I’ve been fishing with wiggle warts 70 and 80 feet back. Seems like everyone I’ve talked to has a favorite wart color. Green and orange speck seem to produce on my boat. Some of the guy’s are still running spoons and divers with great success but they are catching more white perch and small walleye. I’ve run small salmon spoons on my high and low divers and that helped keep off some of the smaller fish and it’s also taken my larger walleye. Silver Streak mini spoons in Malibu Barbie, Mixed Veggies. You’ll have to keep checking the divers frequently for small fish your your wasting your time running them.
Perch fishing has also been good around “W” buoy and “C” buoy inside the Michigan dump. Off the #1 buoy of the Raisin River and out in front … [Read more...]

Capt. Janice Deaton reports from SLH J-Lyn Charters
A few steelhead and an occasional salmon are still being taken out near the color lines fishing the top 20 to 75 foot of water with bright colored lures. Clean spoons off the downriggers, and the 5, 7, and 10 color lead lines off the Offshore boards are working best.
There are still some nice Lake Trout being taken in 80 to 130 foot of water areas straight out and North of the harbor using clean spoons off the downriggers and dodgers and spin and glows or flys off the bottom. Blue, Green with a red head, and Glow colors have been working. Quicker speeds are working best.
Keep those lines tight, Captains Ken and Janice Deaton J-Lyn Charters Harbor Beach MI 810-542-0426 www.jlyncharters.com
… [Read more...]

Capt. Ron Westrate, Director SLM, reports from First Call ll .
More Silver Fish in the Creel
Another very good week of fishing out of Saugatuck with creel numbers in the teens and a higher number of silver fish in the mix. Fishing in the 80 to 100 foot depth as produced consistent lake trout limits and 4 to 7 steelhead and Chinook salmon in the catch.
The lake trout are still being caught with metal dodgers and spin n glos (glow white, double trouble and green/yellow) on wire divers and downriggers. The steelhead are being caught on stingray UV mixed veggie and orange crush spoons pulled on 100 and 150 foot of copper. The Chinook salmon are coming on Pro Troll flashers with Rapture flies. The best combinations are blue bubble flasher with the Oceana UV fly, UV mixed veggie with the Green No See Um fly and a chartrouse/glow flasher with the Frosted Fern fly. These are being pulled on 250, 300 and 350 foot of copper.
Perch fishing out of … [Read more...]

Capt. Ron Westrate, Director SLM, reports from First Call ll .
More Silver Fish in the Creel
Another very good week of fishing out of Saugatuck with creel numbers in the teens and a higher number of silver fish in the mix. Fishing in the 80 to 100 foot depth as produced consistent lake trout limits and 4 to 7 steelhead and Chinook salmon in the catch.
The lake trout are still being caught with metal dodgers and spin n glos (glow white, double trouble and green/yellow) on wire divers and downriggers. The steelhead are being caught on stingray UV mixed veggie and orange crush spoons pulled on 100 and 150 foot of copper. The Chinook salmon are coming on Pro Troll flashers with Rapture flies. The best combinations are blue bubble flasher with the Oceana UV fly, UV mixed veggie with the Green No See Um fly and a chartrouse/glow flasher with the Frosted Fern fly. These are being pulled on 250, 300 and 350 foot of copper.
Perch fishing out of … [Read more...]

Capt. John Giszczak Secretary MCBA Stray Cat Charters reports from Lake Erie
Walleye fishing has really picked up this past week, thanks to a steady weather pattern. Many limit catches have been taken all week from “E” buoy to the Raisin River in 22 feet of water. Wiggle warts have been good off the planner boards keeping small walleye (spikes) from biting 70 to 80 feet back in 22 feet of water. Spoons and divers seem to be taking the bigger walleye and more walleye spikes. I like running wiggle warts they are a lot more forgiving on speed and like to be run from 2.2 to 2.7 mph. If your not catching speed up a little at a time till you hit that sweet spot. I was catching some nice eye’s hear and there earlier in the week and starting tapping the throttle a little bit at a time next thing I knew all heck broke lose with a triple then a double. Also cock the angle of your troll a few degrees and that can trigger a bite on both sides of your boat. Caught a few very large walleye near … [Read more...]

Capt. Eric Andersen, VP MCBA, from Andersen Charters,Frankfort ,MI.... Reports this week...
The Kings are biting,time to head for northwest Michigan for King Salmon.
Most trips charters here are averaging 3 to 9 king salmon per 1/2 day trip....some days the " bite" is good with a new school arriving along the " bank" here at Frankfort and then on other days its pick away at them at 1st light or dusk . Most charters here are targeting salmon at dawn and dusk and then targeting lake trout during the rest of the charter trip.
White spin doctors and Stinger protrolls with aqua/green/blue flies are working well off dipsey rods with spoons off riggers...White pearl in a Warrior spoon was good on our "out down" riggers with a white spindoctor and fly or meat rig down the center rigger and deep for those deep kings.
The off shore fishery ...out there 16 to 20 miles is slowing down..but there's still fish out there if a boater wants to make the trip out and … [Read more...]

This past week was another week of predominate lake trout creels with occasional steelhead or salmon mixed in. Creel numbers ranged from 10 to 20 fish per trip and ther size of the fish averaged 9 to 12 pounds. During the early and mid week, there were some very nice steelhead and salmon catches in 25 foot of water, however the water has warmed and the fish moved out.
The methods used were unchanged from last week with metal dodgers and spin n glos on the bottom and flashers and flies on 200 and 300 copper for the silver fish.
Early in the week the pier fishermen were catching steelhead with shrimp under a bobber. Perch fishing was very spotty with some catches early in the week 7 miles south of the harbor and some catches in the edge of the river water mid week.
For more information or to make a fishing charter reservation, email me at captron@chartermichigan.com.
This past week was another week of predominate lake trout creels with occasional … [Read more...]

Capt. John Giszczak Secretary MCBA Stray Cat Charters reports from Lake Erie:
Walleye fishing has been good but we are still dealing with North East and East winds. Trolling between the Raisin River and Stoney Point with wiggle warts 90 back has produced some nice catchs in 22 to 24 feet of water. Trolling 40 jets around 65 feet produced walleye catchs faster than the wiggle warts but you will catch lots of spikes. I’ve been using the warts and have not caught a spike but the bite is a little slower. The walleye seem to like a trolling speed a little hot using the warts, some where around 2.5 to 2.7 mph. Color didn’t seem to matter.
Perch fishing has been awesome! “W” buoy is the place if you don’t want to travel far. the water looks muddy but the perch seem to still bite in it. The Raisin River outer buoys is producing good catchs with some bigger perch. The perch seem to be everywhere we stopped and tried most in the size range from 7 to 8 inchs. Right now is the time to try a … [Read more...]

Some steelhead are being taken out near the color lines fishing the top 25 to 60 foot of water with bright orange, green and yellow colors. Try using some 2, 3, 5, and 10 color lead lines off those Offshore boards.
Lake Trout are being taken in 100 to 120 foot of water areas North of the harbor using clean spoons off the downriggers and dodgers and squids off the bottom. Blue, Green, Yellow with black dots, and orange colors have still been working. Quicker speeds are working best.
Keep those lines tight,
Captains Ken and Janice Deaton
J-Lyn Charters
Harbor Beach MI
810-542-0426
www.jlyncharters.com
Some steelhead are being taken out near the color lines fishing the top 25 to 60 foot of water with bright orange, green and yellow colors. Try using some 2, 3, 5, and 10 color lead lines off those Offshore boards.
Lake Trout are being taken in 100 to 120 foot of water areas North of the harbor using clean spoons off the downriggers and dodgers and squids off the bottom. Blue, … [Read more...]

Capt Eric Andersn from Andersen Charters reports...The off shore thermo bar fishing was better than the week before ..and we thought the fishing was "tops" then. Our last charter we hit a pod of Steelhead with 4 fish on all at the same time...3 off boards and 1 off a downrigger set at 18 ft down..Most of our catches are coming off 3 color lead core trolling lines ,a few off shallow set downriggers and a few off dipsey diver rods set at 60ft back on the line counter reels..All are coming off Warrior flutter spoons and Stinger spoons in orange combo colors....anything in orange is working in those baits.
Most of this fishing is out there west of Frankfort ,MI about 20 miles out..Smaller boaters need to keep an eye on the wind and weather before venturing out there..Waters are so cold that the big lake is calm out there and closer to shore you could 3 footers with whitecaps...So this fishery is mainly a large boat with twin engines type fishery.. … [Read more...]

Port Captain Bill Myers Reports From Gladstone in the UP
Fishing is picking up in the U.P. Northern Lake Michigan.
Veronica, an exchange student from Brazi,l came back to visit with her host Family from Lansing and wanted to come to the U.P. and catch some U.P. Northern lake Michigan salmon. (she's all smiles)
She says you got to dry their hotdogs "Thank you Captain Bill for showing us a great time you are a great captain Veronica will have lasting memories of that outing.
Thanks again .I will send you a pictures of that hot dog with peas corn mashed potatoes and hash browns for sure."( All on a bun) … [Read more...]

Director SLM Captain Ron Westrate From First Call 2 Charters reports from Saugatuck:
This past week was a strange week for fishing on Lake Michigan, with a catch of 12 fish on the beginning of the week and then 3 fish the next couple of trips and then 9 and 10 fish by the end of the week. The lake did cool off with 43 degree water in front of the piers and 47 degree water on the surface and 41 degree water on the bottom in 70 foot of water. We did fish in front of the piers for part of two days and caught some nice salmon and steelhead, however, most of our time was spent in 70 to 90 foot of water. This past week we caught steelhead over 11 pounds, Chinook salmon 19 pounds and lake trout over 12 pounds.
When we fished in front of the piers, we caught salmon and steelhead on small orange and orange and green stingers behind 3 color and 30 and 75 foot of copper line. Off shore we fished the same way we have been the last week with metal dodgers and spin n glos on the bottom … [Read more...]

Capt. Janice Deaton reports from SLH J-Lyn Charters
Lake Trout being taken in 90 to 140 foot of water areas straight out and North of the harbor using clean spoons off the downriggers and dodgers and squids off the bottom. Green, Yellow with black dots, and orange colors have still been working. Quicker speeds are working best.
Some steelhead are starting to be taken out near the color lines fishing the top 50 foot of water with bright orange, green and yellow colors. Try using some 2, 3, 5, and 10 color lead lines off those Offshore boards.
A few nice Coho were taken mixed in with the steelhead on the same lures.
Be aware that there have been some reports of a free floating net straight out of the harbor in 100 foot of water setting close to the bottom with a couple of lines on the ends that come up on both ends to 70 foot that some fishermen have been getting their cannon balls caught up in, for your safety keep a pair of wire cutters close to the back of your boat near the … [Read more...]

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